Specifications

The wizard workflows prevent erroneous upgrade sequences. For example, the wizard prevents you from
upgrading virtual machine hardware before you upgrade hosts in a cluster.
You can use Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) to prevent virtual machine downtime during the
upgrade process.
Update Manager monitors hosts and virtual machines for compliance against your defined upgrade
baselines. Noncompliance appears in detailed reports and in the dashboard view. Update Manager supports
mass remediation.
The following vSphere components are upgraded by Update Manager.
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ESX and ESXi kernel (vmkernel)
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Virtual machine hardware
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VMware Tools
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Virtual appliances
For components that are not listed here, you can perform the upgrade by using another upgrade method, or,
for third-party components, by using the appropriate third-party tools.
The following topics describe how to use Update Manager to conduct an orchestrated upgrade of your ESXi
hosts.
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“Configuring Host and Cluster Settings,” on page 100
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“Perform an Orchestrated Upgrade of Hosts Using vSphere Update Manager,” on page 101
To use Update Manager to conduct an orchestrated upgrade of virtual machines on your hosts, see
“Perform an Orchestrated Upgrade of Virtual Machines with vSphere Update Manager,” on page 151. For
complete documentation of all Update Manager operations, see the vSphere Update Manager Installation and
Administration Guide.
Configuring Host and Cluster Settings
When you update vSphere objects in a cluster with DRS, VMware High Availability (HA), and VMware
Fault Tolerance (FT) enabled, you can choose to temporarily disable VMware Distributed Power
Management (DPM), HA admission control, and FT for the entire cluster. When the update completes,
Update Manager restores these features.
Updates might require that the host enters maintenance mode during remediation. Virtual machines cannot
run when a host is in maintenance mode. To ensure availability, vCenter Server can migrate virtual
machines to other ESX/ESXi hosts within a cluster before the host is put into maintenance mode.
vCenter Server migrates the virtual machines if the cluster is configured for vMotion, and if DRS is enabled.
If a host has no running virtual machines, VMware DPM might put the host in standby mode and interrupt
an Update Manager operation. To make sure that scanning and staging complete successfully,
Update Manager disables VMware DPM during these operations. To ensure successful remediation, you
should allow Update Manager to disable VMware DPM and HA admission control before the remediation
operation. After the operation completes, Update Manager restores VMware DPM and HA admission
control. Update Manager disables HA admission control before staging and remediation but not before
scanning.
If VMware DPM has already put hosts in standby mode, Update Manager powers on the hosts before
scanning, staging, and remediation. After the scanning, staging, or remediation is complete,
Update Manager turns on VMware DPM and HA admission control and lets VMware DPM put hosts into
standby mode, if needed. Update Manager does not remediate powered off hosts.
If hosts are put into standby mode and VMware DPM is manually disabled for a reason, Update Manager
does not remediate or power on the hosts.
vSphere Upgrade
100 VMware, Inc.